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Sunday, October 20, 2013

On the hopes of Rabbi Shaul Brach that Rav Abraham Isaac Kook Convert to Christianity

In 1960, R. Tzvi Hirsch Friedman (student of the Minchat Eleazar of Munkacz, d.1969) published a Polemic קול קורא לעזרה against the Israeli Rabbinate in relation to a divorce sought by the author's sister. In between the attacks on the Rabbinate were published several letters against Rav Abraham Isaac Kook.

Referred to as אותו האיש, the letters present some of the most vicious attacks against Rav Kook Imaginable. Here is the letter of Rabbi Shaul Brach (1865-1940) one of the most prominent Hungarian Anti-Zionists as it appears in the book.

After comparing him to Shabetai Sevi, he states ויש תקוה טובה שגם הוא יתנצר and there is great hope that he too will convert to Christianity once his Zionist fever will die down. This was written in response to Rav Kook's few lines written in his Iggerot (page 47) in defense of Christianity. Refusing to address him by name, he writes that of his name, "which is alluded to in ישעיהו פרק כח ח". The Pasuk reads
כִּי כָּל-שֻׁלְחָנוֹת, מָלְאוּ קִיא צֹאָה, בְּלִי, מָקוֹם
קיא ראשי תיבות אברהם יצחק קוק. The word קיא translates as vomit.

A letter by Rabbi Eliezer David Gruenwald, the Rabbi of Satmar appears in the pamphlet as well. From among his many honorary titles that he gives Rav Kook is מאנשי בליעל, חובר חברים ספרי מינים וספרי אפיקורסות .....

The Rogatchover Gaon's letter against Rav Kook appears preceding them as well. It has been suggested that the Anti-Zionist letters attributed to the Rogatchover have been forged.